Archives | Parviz Sayyad

Haunted by memories as a child soldier in 1980s Iran, Behrouz finds himself in bustling, neon-soaked Los Angeles, working to become a real estate agent and live a simple life with his girlfriend Oksana. But Behrouz’s attempts at a normal life become increasingly difficult as his opium addiction and gambling habit rear their ugly heads, and he struggles to leave behind his past with the Iranian mafia. Soon Behrouz and Oksana find themselves caught between the feuding heads of the Iranian and Russian mobs.

Stranded in a remote Iranian village, a French journalist is approached by Zahra, a woman who has a harrowing tale to tell about her niece, Soraya, and the bloody circumstances of her death the day before… As the journalist turns on his tape recorder, Zahra takes us back to the beginning of her story which involves Soraya’s husband, the local phony mullah, and a town all too easily led down a path of deceit, coercion, and hysteria. The women, stripped of all rights and without recourse, nobly confront the overwhelming desires of corrupt men who use and abuse their authority to condemn Soraya, an innocent but inconvenient wife, to an unjust and torturous death. A shocking and true drama, it exposes the dark power of mob rule, uncivil law, and the utter lack of human rights for women. The last and only hope for some measure of justice lies in the hands of the journalist who must escape with the story — and his life — so the world will know. [Synopsis courtesy of film’s official website]

At 40, the road less traveled is narrowing for Bob who struggles to write his next screenplay while dealing with eccentric tenants, unclogging drains and collecting rents, for his father’s real estate business. But when his father falls ill, Bob decides to change and embrace the legacy of his family and culture for the first time. He even finds himself falling in love with a Jewish Iranian ‘princess’ from the community. But can he really change?